User blog:Capi3101/WCRPG Update for November 17, 2014
Greetings, Wingnuts and Citizens! Time for the Weekly WCRPG Update. First off, I need to apologize for not having an update for y'all last Monday. That previous Saturday (November 8th), I participated in the 2014 Oklahoma City FARE Walk, an event to raise awareness and funding for research and education about food allergies. This is an issue which has a good deal of immediacy and importance for me; my youngest child has - among other allergies - a severe allergy to sunflower seeds, which is exceptionally rare (there are more people living in the city where I live than there are people with sunflower allergies in the whole of the United States). Despite assurances that the walk would be 3-5k tops, it turned out to be 7k, which I did complete but left me where I didn't want to do anything the rest of that day - including write an update. And naturally I had to make up the chores I would've ordinarily gotten done on a Saturday that Sunday afternoon. And then I had a new employee begin on Monday and I had to start his training right away, so I didn't have any time to whip up a quick update last Monday morning. So that's my set of excuses there... I should probably also apologize for the notices of this update being posted late as well. Snow day - first of the season. On the other hand, the actual update was up before 14Z, so... And the worst part is that even though I've had two weeks, I still didn't manage to accomplish my goal from two weeks ago, which was to finish up the histories of both B'de and Le'a'he. For that, I have to quote my wife, who has sometimes told me that "you can't force creativity". Here is what I accomplished these last two weeks: on November 3rd I went ahead and built stats for the Gyrfalcon interceptor and started work on the profile of Captain Moran from Saga, which took the rest of that day and all of November 4th as well, though that day I did discover it was possible for me to make minor edits from my iPhone (which I thought was pretty neat though generally impractical for long-term work). I did finally finish up work on Captain Moran with the completion of his stats block on November 5th. After adding a few terms to the Kilrathi lexicon, I continued work on B'de, which took up the rest of that week; I got the character up to the "final paragraph" where I describe his current situation, world view and motivations before the week was out, but I wasn't happy with it - basically I needed to give some thought to why that particular character was still alive (i.e. why he hadn't committed zu'kara already). Of course I was fairly busy that weekend (as I've said already) so I didn't come up with a solution. This past Monday I did find time to build stats for the Iir'tahk Medium Fighter and begin work on Admiral Rumley's profile, but my time was severely restricted this past week (largely owing to the necessities of training my new employee), so I didn't complete his profile until very late in the day on Wednesday (and I'll admit to overthinking his early history). Since by that point I hadn't visited the character in a week, I went ahead and spent Thursday reviewing what I'd written so far about B'de and wound up making revisions - the new version wound up borrowing a concept off the Klingons again, but it fit the character and resolved my previous "still living" issue. No specific instances of the borrowed Klingon cultural phenomenon are blatantly referenced, so I'm okay with doing that this one time - but once again, Tlhingan Qilrangan'be, Kronos'hra'hav Kilrathi. I completed B'de's history by mid-day on Friday, and after adding a few more words to the lexicon I went ahead and finally updated the wiki's main page to account for recent events (such as the end of hardcopy availability). I'm going to be making additional changes to the wiki pages to make the downloads easier to get to; right now they're all in the middle of the introductory paragraph, which you do have to scroll down to get to. I'm thinking I'll be adding some graphics to the top of the main page so that they'll be just right there, the first thing somebody sees when they visit the site. I'll keep y'all up to date on all of that. The completion of Admiral Rumley's profile means that I'm officially done with work on Saga characters. I am expecting some feedback from the Saga folks at some point; my intent right now is to await for that feedback and once I've got it to go ahead and produce a dedicated page for the Saga characters and make any suggested changes. That'll likely include the folks from the Prologue campaign, even though those are the ones that show up in the Who's Who section of the Core Rules. Internal consistency and all that. I'm thinking about what else I might add to that page, like ships that came from Saga, or perhaps (and this is only if I get time to try it out) one or two scenarios in WCRPG format of the more memorable Saga missions. I'm willing to take suggestions on this if anybody has any. So, the Plan for this week: since I can start doubling up on Aces craft, I will. I plan to make stats for the Confederation Manta and Kilrathi Mraktahn fighters and then get into Elegy characters. Le'a'he is still on my short list as the next character to complete followed by Naj'bakdor, both of whom now have sufficient notes for me to just hammer out. Only other Demon's Eye character after that is Najekh, who I did make some headway on over this past weekend but whose notes are still largely incomplete, and who I'll need to start work on soon. I also need to get back to work on helping Aginor with his Kilrathi campaign; I hope I'll find some time to work on that this coming week. Things are still pretty hectic but they should be winding down soon with any luck. At least, I'm hoping to be able to use the Thanskgiving break to rest; I certainly could use it at this point... That's it for this week; next update between between 11-14Z on November 24th. And now for the grand finale of the Saga characters - here's the profiles for Captain Moran and Admiral Rumley: CAPT Matthew Moran Matthew Moran was born in London at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, located just to the north of St. Paul's Cathedral in the historical City of London district. He was the only son of Melvin Moran, a sitting member of the House of Commons in the British Parliament, and his wife Jasmine. When Matthew was three years old, his father was appointed High Commissioner for Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom to Canada, and the family shortly thereafter moved to the capital of the Canadian Dominion at Ottawa. Young Matthew grew up heavily involved in political spheres, with dignitaries and politicians common guests at his family's dinner table. These guests occasionally included high ranking members of the Confederation Grand Assembly (such as Jamison More) and high-ranking members of the Confederation military such as Admiral Wayne Banbridge (who made quite an impression on young Matthew during his visit - particularly with his opinion that those who criticize military leaders should have at least served the military at some point, an opinion that did not sit too well with Matthew's father). A bright young man, Matthew developed a high affinity for the game of Chess and its variants; he was quite fond of Shogi in particular but could never find anyone willing to play the traditional Japanese variant of the game with him, so he learned as much as he could about western Chess and became a noteworthy player and member of FIDE. Matthew was old enough to remember the beginnings of the two great wars of the 27th Century, the final war with the Pilgrim Alliance (which was often discussed at his father's table) and the Terran-Kilrathi War, which he remembers was "no big deal for those first two months, until McAuliffe"; the McAuliffe Ambush took place just before his tenth birthday. When he was fourteen, the Kilrathi ambushed the Pilgrim enclave at Hellespont, killing 82,000 people, and attempted a similar action against the Confederation colony at Tartarus. At dinner that evening, as the politics of the war was brought up, Matthew opined that the Kilrathi action against the Terran colonies was likely the opening move of a broader campaign - that "whether or not an attack succeeds largely depends on how your pawns are set up". He was right in his assessment: just over a month later, the Kilrathi launched their failed invasion of Enyo, and it was the stories of the courage of the people who fought back that finally convinced Matthew that his destiny lied in a military career. He prepared as much as he could during his later high school years; The Art of War became one of his favorite books (and not just because it improved his chess game somewhat). In 2642, he announced to his family his intention to attend the Space Force Academy, with the intent of pursuing an officer's commission as a pilot - as it had been proven it was the pilots who were taking the real fight to the enemy. His father headtedly attempted to convince Matthew to change his mind during his final months at home, but in the end he accepted his son's choice with pride. Matthew did well at the Academy, ultimately graduating with honors in 2646. In flight school, his obsession with chess (and with using chess metaphors during flight) lent itself to his callsign, "Pawn" (and he was glad that the flight instructor who gave him that callsign didn't know the history of the name of that particular chess piece, as his callsign could've just as easily been "Peon" or some unfortunate and probably vulgar derivative thereof). Upon completing flight training, Second Lieutenant Moran reported for duty aboard TCS Eagle's Talon under the command of Commodore Jack Rumley, where he specialized in the CF-105 Scimitar Medium Fighter. He served two tours aboard Eagle's Talon, receiving multiple awards and commendations and fighting in some of the bloodiest battles of the War during the ten-year period, including the failed attempt of the invasion of G'wriss and the subsequent Confederation rout later known as Custer's Carnival. In 2655, he rotated back to Luna to become a flight instructor, where he served until 2658; the CF-105 was officially striken from Confederation front-line units shortly after his transfer. At the conclusion of his tour as an instructor, he was transitioned to the F-44C Rapier-II. Afterwards, Captain Moran was assigned to the newly constructed Olympus Station as commander of the station's Rapier squadron, where his skills were put to the test in the defense of Ghorah Khar and where he took the time to familiarize himself with new craft entering the Confederation's arsenal, such as the new F-57 Sabre. Moran performed his duty with distinction at Olympus but longed to get back out into the "real" fight; he put in a request for carrier duty again as soon as anything became available. That opportunity came in 2662, when the CO billet for the ship's Sabre squadron aboard TCS Washington under the command of Captain Ludmilla Petranova became available; by this time, Moran had been promoted to the grade of Major. Upon arriving aboard Washington, Moran found that his appointment as squadron CO did not sit well with his XO, Major Shane "Ranger" Walker. The two officers started off as fierce rivals; they butted heads in everything from personality clashes to flight operations. Ultimately, though, the two learned to respect one another and became close friends. At the Battle of the Enigma Black Hole, Moran was gravely injured; though he survived, his optic nerve had been permanently damaged resulting in some loss of vision. As a result, he was permanently grounded; with his flying days over, Moran recommended that Major Walker be given command of the squadron and transferred his own commission to the Navy. Lieutenant Commander Moran remained aboard Washington as a Landing Systems Officer in light of his flight experience. He would later become the ship's Air Boss and ultimately ship's XO, where he served until 2668. That year Washington was sent to Trojan IV for an extensive reactor refit and modernization; during the ship's refit, Captain Petranova informed Moran that she had sent a recommendation to Admiral Tolwyn for him to receive his own command, and that the Admiral had agreed with the recommendation. The newly-promoted Captain Matthew Moran was given the Commanding Officer's billet aboard TCS Hermes, where he served during the war's final years and oversaw crucial missions such as Operation Back Lash, the Behemoth mission, and the Battle of Hyperion. At Hyperion, Moran was again seriously wounded and lost a leg when Hermes took a series of torpedo hits; he and his ship ultimately survived to see the end of the War. Captain Moran retired from active duty at the end of the war and accepted an appointment as a Professor at the Naval Space Academy, instructing classes in both fighter and capital ship tactics and participating in many chess tournaments. Moran died of natural causes in 2683, living long enough to see the onset of the Confederation's war with the Nephilim. At the time of his death, Moran was considered a FIDE Interstellar Master in chess, with an Elo rating of 2508 (he did not hold the title of Grandmaster because he hadn't completed a sufficient number of norms, despite his Elo rating otherwise being high enough for the title). Experienced in both fighter and ship combat operations, Captain Moran brings a fighter pilot's experience and edge when it comes to captaining his carrier. To his men and women, he is fair and respectful; against the Kilrathi, he is aggressive, fierce and unrelenting. Both traits have earned him the respect of his crew. Well acquainted with Kilrathi psychology and tactics, Captain Moran plots his counter-strategies against them with the calm intelligence of a veteran chess player. VADM Jack Rumley John Rumley III was the middle child and only son of Dennis Rumley, Jr., a private hover-vehicle mechanic who was raised in a working-class home in Boston, and his wife, Dr. Carolyn Rumley, an associate professor of political science at Assumption College in Worcester. Of Irish descent, his father's family could trace its lineage back to County Donegal and the vicinity of Stranorlar, and their history included some noteworthy figures, including a late 20th Century race car driver of some note. His maternal grandfather, Kirk Earnhardt, was one of several men responsible for the design and construction of TCS Haile Selassie, the ship that was equipped with the first working Confederation Akwende drive prototype and successfully completed a successful set of round-trip jump transits between Sol and Polaris in 2588. Young Jack was enrolled at St. Leo Catholic School at the age of three and continued in attendance there throughout his early secondary educational years, generally coming in as one of the top five students in his class each year. As a prominent citizen of Leominster, his mother made sure that young Jack had a good grounding in the arts; trips to listen to performances of the Boston Symphony Orchestra were common occurrences during Jack's formative years, though he also enjoyed local events such the Christmas program of the Leominster Colonial Band annually as well. He also enjoyed the yearly Starburst Festival at Doyle Field each June; in 2624, his mother was was recognized as the town's "citizen of the Year" during the festival. Jack later attended Leominster High School and enjoyed attending hyperball games, particularly the Blue Devils' annual game against the Fitchburg High School Red Raiders. The topic of the value of military service was often brought up between Jack and his father during this time. Due to his desire both to perform a vital service to the Confederation and to pay for his own teriary education, Jack informed his father during his sophomore year of high school that he intended to join the military, a decision which his father supported wholeheartedly. The Iason incident occurred during Jack's junior year, though the significance of that event would not be realized until well after Jack had left hearth and home. In 2630, Jack attended the Naval Space Academy; while there he joined the school's amateur boxing team and became a fighter of some skill. He found that the sport helped him to alleviate tension - that nothing reduced stress quite like delivering a good beating. Jack first met fellow classmate Geoffrey Tolwyn early on during his plebe year. The two shared many common interests and became both good friends and bitter academic rivals; as a rule Tolwyn was opinionated, argumentative, and openly critical of his superiors, while Rumley was non-confrontational, quietly working "behind the scenes" to make things happen. In the end, Rumley proved himself the better academician, graduating as valedictorian of the Naval Academy's Class of '34; he was not a direct witness to Tolwyn's confrontation with Senator Jamison More at their graduation ceremony but he heard about it through the grapevine later on. Rumley believed Tolwyn's behavior that day to be typical Tolwyn, and could only shake his head at what seemed to be a very quick end to what would otherwise have been a very promising career. After graduation, Rumley decided to attend flight training "while it was still an option", as the flight school was scheduled to be shut down - and would've been had not the Terran-Kilrathi War broken out just a few months later. Rumley was trained on the F-36/E Wildcat-III Interceptor, and was given the callsign of "Rummy" both as a play on his surname and as a bit of irony - Rumley was a known teetotaler during his Academy years. For his part, Rumley hated his callsign - mostly for the veiled racial slur it represented - which, of course, guaranteed that it would stick. His first deep space assignment was aboard TCS Ark Royal; he was aboard when the Anna Magdalena incident occurred and the Confederation officially declared war on the Kilrathi Empire. Ark Royal was subsequently assigned to Task Force 21 along with the battleships Yorkshire and North Carolina and tasked with engaging targets in Facin Sector. She was diverted to McAuliffe by Admiral Wayne Banbridge, who believed a Kilrathi attack on the outpost there was inevitable. Banbridge was proven correct; Ark Royal met up with TCS Concordia and together the two carriers led the Confederation's counterstrike. Ark Royal lost half of its crew in a torpedo strike and half its bomber wing to enemy action but did survive and ultimately picked up the survivors of Concordia on their way back to Fleet Headquarters. Ark Royal was out of commission for close to a year after the action at McAuliffe and hundreds of thousands of fleet personnel had been killed when the orbiting Alexandria skyhook was destroyed. By attrition, Rumley became one of the young hardchargers who stepped in their shoes to lead a new generation of aviators, rapidly making his way up the ranks. He was reassigned to the destroyer TCS Basingstoke and regularly flew missions alternating between the Wildcat and the CF-98 Crusader, establishing for himself a reputation as a cunning warrior, survivor, and strategist; he eventually became the commander of the ship's small fighter group. Basingstoke was assigned to Task Group 11 in 2639 along with Tolwyn's flagship TCS Furious prior to the Enyo Engagement, and he worked with Tolwyn to plan and implement the Confederation counter-strike. Rumley flew a Raptor during the climactic action at Enyo, dropping mines ahead of the main strike. Shortly after Enyo, Rumley became ship's XO, effectively taking him out of the cockpit for good. After three years serving as Basingstoke's XO, Rumley was offered a command of his own - the newly launched TCS Eagle's Talon, a strike-carrier of the Bengal-class. He was promoted to flag rank after his first year aboard the vessel, which he commanded until 2662. During that time, Rumley oversaw crucial operations such as the unsuccessful First Epsilon Campaign (which, as the fleet officer in charge, proved somewhat detrimental to his career) as well as an extended tour in Vega Sector, part of which involved leading his carrier to safety during Custer's Carnival (and it somewhat annoyed him later that it was Tiger's Claw and Tolwyn that was responsible for "saving his bacon" during that debacle). In 2662, Eagle's Talon was critically damaged in defensive operations in the Bradbury system. While Rumley was able to accomplish his mission and extract his battle group to Ella, Eagle's Talon herself was a write-off; she was decommissioned and her hulk sent off to the shipbreakers, leaving Wolfhound as the only Bengal-class carrier still serving with the fleet. Rear Admiral Rumley requested to be put back in the saddle as soon as could be arranged; his request was granted, and by the end of the year he had been assigned the CO's billet aboard TCS Saratoga, a dreadnought of the Confederation-class, where he remained through the Battle of Earth. With most of the Confederation's military leaders dead due to a suicide bombing immediately prior to the Battle of Earth, Rumley was appointed as Chief-in-Command of the Vega Sector Fleet in the battle's aftermath with a promotion to the grade of Vice Admiral and charged with managing the Confederation's few remaining defenses there. Rumley did his best to fulfill his duties as CINCVEGAFLT over the course of the war's final year and for the most part was able to keep the Kilrathi at bay, though he was unable to prevent the loss of key Confederation colonies such as Vega Prime; his forces were simply too badly outnumbered for him to be able to cover every possible angle. With the failure of the Behemoth mission and with Admiral Tolwyn relieved, Rumley found it morally and personally obligated to pick up the pieces - he personally assumed command of the Confederation's remaining forces at that point. Coordinating with General Taggart and Covert Ops, Rumley selected TCS Hermes as his personal flagship for the Battle of Hyperion, what would prove to be the war's final major battle and a cover for the Temblor Raid on Kilrah. Rumley was killed in action when Hermes' bridge took a direct torpedo hit during the battle while fighting against the Kilrathi dreadnought KIS Wratghar. His sacrifice, like all of those who died at Hyperion, paved the way for Colonel Blair to strike Kilrah and end the War. Rumley is a barrel-chested, dashing, proud and noble man, a long-serving and hard-fighting veteran of the entirety of the War's thirty-five year span. He's more-cultured than he lets on and yet manages to maintain a rough-and-tumble image, part of which is his working-class Bostonian accent. Though he never speaks of his professional goals, there is one motive that has continued to keep him pushing himself harder and harder for over 35 years: to accomplish something that Geoffrey Tolwyn could not... Category:Blog posts